Boreal tree adaptation to seasonal drought conditions
Julie Stricker
907-474-5406
Dec. 12, 2022
Jessie Young-Robertson
Climate change is bringing shifting rainfall patterns and warmer temperatures to the boreal forest. At the University of 色视频下载 Fairbanks, Jessie Young-Robertson is studying how boreal trees store and regulate water use.
色视频下载淚 want to talk about the drought response of boreal forest trees over a long period of time,色视频下载 Young-Robertson said. 色视频下载淏y drought response, I mean how the trees use water, how stressed they get and how they respond to environmental changes in air temperature and rainfall
Young-Robertson is presenting a paper on the topic at the 2022 American Geophysical Union meeting this week.
The study is focusing on two tree types: coniferous black spruce and deciduous aspen and birch in the Caribou-Poker Creeks Research Watershed near Fairbanks. In summer 2022, sensors measured environmental variables, sap (water) flux and trunk water content every 30 minutes. Canopy water stress measurements were taken weekly.
色视频下载淭he story so far is that we really need a snowpack,色视频下载 Young-Robertson said. 色视频下载淲e色视频下载檙e seeing the impact of earlier springs. We色视频下载檙e seeing the impact of super-hot summers, and we色视频下载檙e seeing the impact in the changing of the packaging of the precipitation.
The 色视频下载減ackaging色视频下载 of precipitation refers to when and how much rain falls during the summer. Rain that just comes in August has a different effect than rain that falls all summer.
Trees grow in June and July. If it doesn色视频下载檛 rain while the trees are growing, that adds stress, she said.
Ongoing work is revealing that the trees are approaching their climatic limit with increased drought pressure.